Overview

I am a Proleptic lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter.

My research is broadly in climate and climate change. I am a theoretical physicist by training and try to use the analytical techniques and models common to theoretical physics to understand climate models, the Earth itself and even sometimes other planet's climates. I've worked with a range of climate models from simple and idealized to full complexity and on quantum information theory and foundations of quantum mechanics. My main present interests are tipping points in the climate system and the use of emergent constraints to reduce uncertainty in future climate projections. 

Research specialisms

• Earth system modelling,
• Emergent constraints,
• Tipping points,
• Quantum information and foundations.

Career

Present - 2019. Proleptic lecturer, Maths and Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter.

2019 - 2014 Research Fellow, Department of Geography and Mathematics, University of Exeter.

2014 - 2009. Research Fellow, Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore

2012 - 2010. Research Fellow, Department of Physics, University of Oxford.

2011 - 2010. Schroedinger Junior Research Fellow. Erwin Schroedinger Institute for Mathematical Physics and Department of Physics, University of Vienna.

2005 - 2004. Research Assistant, Department of Environmental Sciences, UEA. 

2004 - 2002. Research Assistant, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton.

Qualifications

PhD, Theoretical Physics, Leeds,.
MSc, Optics and Photonics, Imperial College London.
BSc Oceanography with Physics, Southampton.

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Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2007 | 2006 | 2003 |

2024

• Huntingford C, Cox PM, Ritchie PDL, Clarke JJ, Parry IM, Williamson MS. (2024) Acceleration of daily land temperature extremes and correlations with surface energy fluxes, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, volume 7, no. 1, article no. 84, DOI:10.1038/s41612-024-00626-0. [PDF]
• Cox PM, Williamson MS, Friedlingstein P, Jones CD, Raoult N, Rogelj J, Varney RM. (2024) Emergent constraints on carbon budgets as a function of global warming, Nature Communications, volume 15, no. 1, article no. 1885, DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-46137-7. [PDF]

2023

• Abrams JF, Huntingford C, Williamson MS, Armstrong McKay DI, Boulton CA, Buxton JE, Sakschewski B, Loriani S, Zimm C, Winkelmann R. (2023) Committed Global Warming Risks Triggering Multiple Climate Tipping Points, Earth's Future, volume 11, no. 11, DOI:10.1029/2022ef003250. [PDF]
• Williamson MS, Lenton TM. (2023) Early warnings of the transition to a superrotating atmospheric state, DOI:10.5194/egusphere-2023-2036. [PDF]
• Williamson MS, Cox PM, Huntingford C, Nijsse FJMM. (2023) Testing the assumptions in emergent constraints: Why does the 'Emergent constraint on equilibrium climate sensitivity from global temperature variability' work for CMIP5 and not CMIP6?, volume 2023, pages 1-34, DOI:10.5194/egusphere-2023-1093.
• Huntingford C, Cox PM, Williamson MS, Clarke JJ, Ritchie PDL. (2023) Emergent constraints for the climate system as effective parameters of bulk differential equations, Earth System Dynamics, volume 14, no. 2, pages 433-442, DOI:10.5194/esd-14-433-2023. [PDF]
• Williamson M. (2023) Early warnings of the transition to a superrotating atmospheric state, DOI:10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6501. [PDF]
• Huntingford C, Cox P, Rithie P, Clarke J, Williamson M. (2023) Acceleration of Daily Land Temperature Extremes and Link to Land Forcing, DOI:10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17519. [PDF]
• Cox P, Williamson M, Clarke J, Huntingford C, Ritchie P. (2023) The paradox of the darkening planet and the Earth’s climate sensitivity, DOI:10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7393. [PDF]
• Sparey M, Cox P, Williamson MS. (2023) Bioclimatic change as a function of global warming from CMIP6 climate projections, Biogeosciences, volume 20, no. 2, pages 451-488, DOI:10.5194/bg-20-451-2023. [PDF]
• Cox P, Williamson M, Friedlingstein P, Jones C, Rogelj J. (2023) Emergent constraints on carbon budgets as a function of global warming, DOI:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2384796/v1. [PDF]

2022

• Huntingford C, Cox PM, Williamson MS, Clarke JJ, Ritchie PDL. (2022) Emergent constraints for the climate system as effective parameters of bulk differential equations, DOI:10.5194/esd-2022-43. [PDF]
• Sparey M, Cox PM, Williamson MS. (2022) Bioclimatic change as a function of global warming from CMIP6 climate projections, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2203.13831.
• Sparey M, Cox PM, Williamson MS. (2022) Bioclimatic change as a function of global warming from CMIP6 climate projections. [PDF]

2020

• Williamson MS, Thackeray CW, Cox PM, Hall A, Huntingford C, Nijsse FJMM. (2020) Emergent constraints on climate sensitivities, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2012.09468.
• Williamson MS, Thackeray CW, Cox PM, Hall A, Huntingford C, Nijsse FJMM. (2020) Emergent constraints on climate sensitivities. [PDF]
• williamson M. (2020) Spatial early warnings of the transition to superrotation: Studying a bifurcation in the general circulation using an idealized GCM, DOI:10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-9484. [PDF]
• Huntingford C, Williamson MS, Nijsse FJMM. (2020) CMIP6 climate models imply high committed warming, Climatic Change, volume 162, no. 3, pages 1515-1520, DOI:10.1007/s10584-020-02849-5.
• Nijsse FJMM, Cox PM, Williamson MS. (2020) Emergent constraints on transient climate response (TCR) and equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) from historical warming in CMIP5 and CMIP6 models, Earth System Dynamics, volume 11, no. 3, pages 737-750, DOI:10.5194/esd-11-737-2020. [PDF]
• Nijsse FJMM, Cox PM, Williamson MS. (2020) An emergent constraint on transient warming from simulated historical warming in CMIP6 models, DOI:10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19747. [PDF]
• Nijsse FJMM, Cox PM, Williamson MS. (2020) An emergent constraint on Transient Climate Response from simulated historical warming in CMIP6 models, DOI:10.5194/esd-2019-86. [PDF]

2019

• Nijsse F, Cox PM, Huntingford C, Williamson M. (2019) Decadal global temperature variability increases strongly with climate sensitivity, Nature Climate Change, volume 9, pages 598-601, DOI:10.1038/s41558-019-0527-4. [PDF]
• Eyring V, Cox PM, Flato GM, Gleckler PJ, Abramowitz G, Caldwell P, Collins WD, Gier BK, Hall AD, Hoffman FM. (2019) Taking climate model evaluation to the next level, Nature Climate Change, volume 9, no. 2, pages 102-110, DOI:10.1038/s41558-018-0355-y.

2018

• Williamson MS, Cox PM, Nijsse FJMM. (2018) Theoretical foundations of emergent constraints: relationships between climate sensitivity and global temperature variability in conceptual models, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1810.12765.
• Cox PM, Williamson MS, Nijsse FJMM, Huntingford C. (2018) Cox et al. reply, Nature, volume 563, no. 7729, pages E10-E15, DOI:10.1038/s41586-018-0641-x. [PDF]
• Williamson MS, Cox PM, Nijsse FJMM. (2018) Theoretical foundations of emergent constraints: relationships between climate sensitivity and global temperature variability in conceptual models. [PDF]
• Bathiany S, Scheffer M, van Nes EH, Williamson MS, Lenton TM. (2018) Abrupt Climate Change in an Oscillating World, Sci Rep, volume 8, no. 1, DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-23377-4. [PDF]
• Cox PM, Huntingford C, Williamson MS. (2018) Emergent constraint on equilibrium climate sensitivity from global temperature variability, Nature, volume 553, no. 7688, pages 319-322, DOI:10.1038/nature25450. [PDF]

2017

• Williamson MS, collins M, drijfhout S, kahana R, mecking J, lenton TM. (2017) Effect of AMOC collapse on ENSO in a high resolution general circulation model, Climate Dynamics, DOI:10.1007/s00382-017-3756-0.

2016

• Bathiany S, van der Bolt B, Williamson MS, Lenton TM, Scheffer M, van Nes E, Notz D. (2016) Trends in sea-ice variability on the way to an ice-free Arctic, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1601.06286.
• Bathiany S, Dijkstra H, Crucifix M, Dakos V, Brovkin V, Williamson MS, Lenton TM, Scheffer M. (2016) Beyond bifurcation: using complex models to understand and predict abrupt climate change, Dynamics and Statistics of the Climate System, pages dzw004-dzw004, DOI:10.1093/climsys/dzw004. [PDF]
• Bathiany S, Van Der Bolt B, Williamson MS, Lenton TM, Scheffer M, Van Nes EH, Notz D. (2016) Statistical indicators of Arctic sea-ice stability-prospects and limitations, Cryosphere, volume 10, no. 4, pages 1631-1645, DOI:10.5194/tc-10-1631-2016.
• Williamson MS, Bathiany S, M Lenton T. (2016) Early warning signals of tipping points in periodically forced systems, Earth System Dynamics, volume 7, no. 2, pages 313-326, DOI:10.5194/esd-7-313-2016.
• Bathiany S, Bolt BVD, Williamson MS, Lenton TM, Scheffer M, Nes EV, Notz D. (2016) Trends in sea-ice variability on the way to an ice-free Arctic. [PDF]

2015

• Williamson MS, Bathiany S, Lenton TM. (2015) Early warning signals of tipping points in periodically forced systems, DOI:10.5194/esdd-6-2243-2015. [PDF]
• Williamson MS, Lenton TM. (2015) Detection of bifurcations in noisy coupled systems from multiple time series, Chaos, volume 25, no. 3, DOI:10.1063/1.4908603.

2012

• Johansson M, Ericsson M, Singh K, Sjöqvist E, Williamson MS. (2012) Topological phases and multiqubit entanglement, Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, volume 85, no. 3, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.85.032112.

2011

• Johansson M, Ericsson M, Singh K, Sjöqvist E, Williamson MS. (2011) Correlation-induced non-Abelian quantum holonomies, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, volume 44, no. 14, DOI:10.1088/1751-8113/44/14/145301.
• Williamson MS, Ericsson M, Johansson M, Sjöqvist E, Sudbery A, Vedral V, Wootters WK. (2011) Geometric local invariants and pure three-qubit states, Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, volume 83, no. 6, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.83.062308.
• Williamson MS, Ericsson M, Johansson M, Sjöqvist E, Sudbery A, Vedral V. (2011) Global asymmetry of many-qubit correlations: A lattice-gauge-theory approach, Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, volume 84, no. 3, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.84.032302.
• Modi K, Cable H, Williamson M, Vedral V. (2011) Quantum Correlations in Mixed-State Metrology, Physical Review X, volume 1, no. 2, pages 1-9, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevX.1.021022.

2010

• Modi K, Paterek T, Son W, Vedral V, Williamson M. (2010) Unified View of Quantum and Classical Correlations, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, volume 104, no. 8, article no. ARTN 080501, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.080501. [PDF]
• Williamson MS, Heaney L, Son W. (2010) Violation of multipartite Bell inequalities with classical subsystems via operationally local transformations, Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, volume 82, no. 3, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.82.032105.

2009

• Williamson MS, Vedral V. (2009) Effect of entanglement on geometric phase for multi-qubit states, Open Systems and Information Dynamics, volume 16, no. 2-3, pages 305-323, DOI:10.1142/s1230161209000244.

2007

• Williamson MS, Vedral V. (2007) Composite geometric phase for multipartite entangled states, Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, volume 76, no. 3, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.76.032115.
• Lenton TM, Marsh R, Price AR, Lunt DJ, Aksenov Y, Annan JD, Cooper-Chadwick T, Cox SJ, Edwards NR, Goswami S. (2007) Effects of atmospheric dynamics and ocean resolution on bi-stability of the thermohaline circulation examined using the Grid ENabled Integrated Earth system modelling (GENIE) framework, CLIMATE DYNAMICS, volume 29, no. 6, pages 591-613, DOI:10.1007/s00382-007-0254-9. [PDF]

2006

• Lunt DJ, Williamson MS, Valdes PJ, Lenton TM. (2006) Comparing transient, accelerated, and equilibrium simulations of the last 30 000 years with the GENIE-1 model, Climate of the Past Discussions, volume 2, no. 3, pages 267-283.
• Marsh R, Smith MPLM, Rohling EJ, Lunt DJ, Lenton TM, Williamson MS, Yool A. (2006) Modelling ocean circulation, climate and oxygen isotopes in the ocean over the last 120000 years, Climate of the Past Discussions, volume 2, no. 5, pages 657-709.
• Williamson MS, Lenton TM, Shepherd JG, Edwards NR. (2006) An efficient numerical terrestrial scheme (ENTS) for Earth system modelling, ECOLOGICAL MODELLING, volume 198, no. 3-4, pages 362-374, DOI:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2006.05.027. [PDF]
• Lunt DJ, Williamson MS, Valdes PJ, Lenton TM, Marsh R. (2006) Comparing transient, accelerated, and equilibrium simulations of the last 30 000 years with the GENIE-1 model, CLIMATE OF THE PAST, volume 2, no. 2, pages 221-235, DOI:10.5194/cp-2-221-2006. [PDF]
• Lenton TM, Williamson MS, Edwards NR, Marsh R, Price AR, Ridgwell AJ, Shepherd JG, Cox SJ. (2006) Millennial timescale carbon cycle and climate change in an efficient Earth system model, CLIMATE DYNAMICS, volume 26, no. 7-8, pages 687-711, DOI:10.1007/s00382-006-0109-9. [PDF]

2003

• Williamson M, Vlatkovedral. (2003) Eavesdropping on practical quantum cryptography, Journal of Modern Optics, volume 50, no. 13, pages 1989-2011, DOI:10.1080/09500340308235253.

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